Unity Wizard School Exchange Student [v0.7 Hotfix] [Blue Witch Games]
- Thread starter bluewitchgames
- Start date
- Mar 18, 2023
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Looks like there is actually not a chest that uses that key, mb! It's at least saved in your saved variables, and I'll make sure to put in a chest for it that can be unlocked when you eventually (soon!) go back to the castle for a short scene
There is a Patreon code that unlocks the entire gallery, yes. That said, most of them really aren't missable and will be unlocked during any normal playthrough!
- May 8, 2018
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Ughhhhhhhhhhh this map is the absolute worst of any game.
I forgot where Ava's room is and there's nothing in the game that directs/shows/tells me.
I'm literally stuck in "Designs in the Dark" quest cause this map is god awful.
I've spent 8 hours on this game so far and more than half my time was spent being lost.
This has gone beyond the level of roleplaying "being lost in hogwarts".
I forgot where Ava's room is and there's nothing in the game that directs/shows/tells me.
I'm literally stuck in "Designs in the Dark" quest cause this map is god awful.
I've spent 8 hours on this game so far and more than half my time was spent being lost.
This has gone beyond the level of roleplaying "being lost in hogwarts".
East wing, second or third story wasn't it? above the library.
Agree
Can you remake the game please, I have vomit feeling. Cannot play more than 10 mins
Back in the day most videogames (specially on PC but at certain extent also on consoles) didn't hold your hand nor treat player as if they were all completely retarded. To be lost was completely normal and nobody wanted hand-holding as solution then. The only examples of getting lost specifically because map/gameworlds design were some complex crpgs, specially dungeon crawlers, but by how HUGE were the dungeons not because "bad maps".
Since early 2000s the great dumbing down of video games design to pander the "casuals" that transformed the medium from a small hobbie for geeks minority to the most popular entertainment in the world introduced a lot of accesability features that reduced quality, including mandatory tutorials, floating markers, lazy fast travel, guided gameplay, interactivity and player agency reduction and a general simplification in game mechanics. Last 15-20 years of dumb mechanics made too many players dumber. Google maps and similar apps prevalence in daily life didn't help neither and younger generations are very usually "spatially handicapped" compared with any other human generation in History.
The relevance of VN in adult games genre (which are not games at all, usually) increase the problem even more as many players aren't used to even a minimal exploration or agency. That's why any sex game with minimal player freedom is called "sandbox", despite most non-VN games here are just static graphic adventures with extremely limited interactivity and a bunch of sex cutscenes. Sandboxy my ass.
In all this context the fact bluewitchgames chose to reduce the hand holding to the minimum and introduce true exploration in the game is an extremely brave move, a breath of fresh air. I was a bit disappointed when I discovered the mandatory floating markers introduced in last release, but at least those only exist for the first minutes.
However the free exploration mechanics/design aren't enough by themselves, just the promising bones of a game. Developer need to improve even more some details in the camera and lighting, reduce the still numerous bugs and include more detail and uniqueness on empty corridors and fake npcs or more playable content in general to fill the huge castle and make exploration truly enjoyable. All this will come with time I hope.
I want to mention also how natural and credible feel most character non-political interactions, friendly chats, conflicts, flirts and rejections compared with the sea of artificial weabooness or casual onanist pandering in the genre, I mean it's not truly "natural", but compared with the usual ridiculous interactions and stories here, the level it's notably better. The only exception is probably the political overdose which feels well written and enjoyable but maybe too much for teen characters, in original HP only Hermione was remotely close to these kids interests and eloquence. Additionally writting feels a too much like an homage to Harry Potter style by a "non-british" developer, but I'm not native so I could be completely wrong in this last point (and dev be british even).
I'm considering becoming a patreon just to defend the use of free exploration and lack of hand holding from the attacks by muh fast travel people. Congratulations and good luck with the game.
Since early 2000s the great dumbing down of video games design to pander the "casuals" that transformed the medium from a small hobbie for geeks minority to the most popular entertainment in the world introduced a lot of accesability features that reduced quality, including mandatory tutorials, floating markers, lazy fast travel, guided gameplay, interactivity and player agency reduction and a general simplification in game mechanics. Last 15-20 years of dumb mechanics made too many players dumber. Google maps and similar apps prevalence in daily life didn't help neither and younger generations are very usually "spatially handicapped" compared with any other human generation in History.
The relevance of VN in adult games genre (which are not games at all, usually) increase the problem even more as many players aren't used to even a minimal exploration or agency. That's why any sex game with minimal player freedom is called "sandbox", despite most non-VN games here are just static graphic adventures with extremely limited interactivity and a bunch of sex cutscenes. Sandboxy my ass.
In all this context the fact bluewitchgames chose to reduce the hand holding to the minimum and introduce true exploration in the game is an extremely brave move, a breath of fresh air. I was a bit disappointed when I discovered the mandatory floating markers introduced in last release, but at least those only exist for the first minutes.
However the free exploration mechanics/design aren't enough by themselves, just the promising bones of a game. Developer need to improve even more some details in the camera and lighting, reduce the still numerous bugs and include more detail and uniqueness on empty corridors and fake npcs or more playable content in general to fill the huge castle and make exploration truly enjoyable. All this will come with time I hope.
I want to mention also how natural and credible feel most character non-political interactions, friendly chats, conflicts, flirts and rejections compared with the sea of artificial weabooness or casual onanist pandering in the genre, I mean it's not truly "natural", but compared with the usual ridiculous interactions and stories here, the level it's notably better. The only exception is probably the political overdose which feels well written and enjoyable but maybe too much for teen characters, in original HP only Hermione was remotely close to these kids interests and eloquence. Additionally writting feels a too much like an homage to Harry Potter style by a "non-british" developer, but I'm not native so I could be completely wrong in this last point (and dev be british even).
I'm considering becoming a patreon just to defend the use of free exploration and lack of hand holding from the attacks by muh fast travel people. Congratulations and good luck with the game.
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i see a lot of characters from other series. please tell me, the main base of characters are in harry potter right? hermione, luna, and dafne?
i see a lot of characters from other series. please tell me, the main base of characters are in harry potter right? hermione, luna, and dafne?
- May 8, 2018
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- Jan 28, 2018
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- Mar 18, 2023
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Really well written post and I appreciate a lot of the points and comments here, seriously man. There definitely is a downwards (or upwards?) trend of games increasingly becoming more hand-holdy, and coupled with people's attention spans getting butchered by the amount of short-form media that we're bombarded with, it's definitely looking interesting for the future of games in general lol. As you said, I wanted to retain the feeling of some of those more classic games, and create a sense of actually getting lost at Hogwarts. That's only really possible with a simple map and simple directions. Now that a couple of the more inexcusable parts have been cleaned up, I feel like I'm at a somewhat comfortable spot. Any further maps (and there might be one more, though it'll require a bit of planning on the player's end too), will probably only be outside of the game, on here, along with a video or two more for some of the more important side-quests.
Like you also mentioned, a couple of the corridors could definitely use getting some attention, and this coming release is dedicated to mostly slice-of-life side content, including filling out things around the castle. It is probably getting cut a bit short by that I want the Yule Ball release out hopefully before Christmas, so it'll probably be
Slice-of-life/side content release > Yule Ball release > another slice of-life/side content release
Seriously, thanks a lot for the comment on the characters. That's actually really appreciated man. I do see your point of some of the characters perhaps having a little too much "eloquence" and political interests though, and that they at times become just tools for developing the general narrative. But for anyone not particularly interested in the political parts, they are mostly wrapped up here in this current release, and finalised (for now...) here in the coming one. And lmao yeah not British either and might have to tune down the amount of times Ron says bloody hell if it feels unnatural even to non-brits, but it's an old fav from the movies
- Mar 18, 2023
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Hermione is in the game, yes, and is the most present character. Luna is in it, but doesn't have much yet (getting changed soon!). Cho is coming in coming release. Daphne is not, but there are a couple of Slytherin equivalents. Then there are a couple of other staples, like professor Sprout, etc
Shouldn't take more than a minute or two on mosts PCs. If it takes more than 3 minutes, there is probably something wrong. Everything is in the same scene with takes a bit of upfront loading, but lets you move quicker between rooms when it has. I'll try and get a loading screen in to make it a bit more visual. As for your problems with the game, I'm really not sure, sorry
I try to check in here as often as I can, so I should still get to you eventually if you post @ me here. In terms of immediate help stuff, discord is probably better though, yes. There are a couple of other guys there who are really helpful when I'm not around too
Good point. I'll get it added, actually!
It's coming!
@andafar, I wouldn't care if the map showed where I was, it is like Dark Souls, the game is hard and easy, it isn't broken hard like a lot of people tried to do, my point is how strange it is the map and how strange the places are, it is like in a two bedroom house the bathroom door of each bedroom was on each other room, (in-game mechanics), let's take your example and put for example chrono trigger the map is good, FF games, the problem is we expect the x room to be on the entrance but it is outside? it is like expecting the library to have books but have computers, it is strange and out of place, it is hard for being hard not because it was so perfectly made that it is hard to navigate.
Again this game has a good story and good images, but I wouldn't play it again with the way the map is right now, I need to trust the map, the same way the door I can't go in a prompt must be shown, and people I already talked the same, and fix the problem of needing to look at a certain way and at a certain distance to talk with someone, the way I put the spell there was mostly that if this kept happening a bathroom not being where it needs to be or because of magic we need to at least know where to look, every game you said would tell us where to look, I want this game to work while I'm rash I'm realist, look at the review and how many people are saying the same thing, I don't care to be hated if this game work out it will be one more for us but it need to work out first.
A better map is needed resident evil 1 has a decent map, silent hill has an even better map, they are all games in the '90s or earlier 2000s, for god sake Dark Souls doesn't have a map and no one complains but the way it is made it is easier to navigate, a better way would be to go to the entrance first show five or seven rooms, them the bedrooms, them another place, another... this way we are slowly introduce to the world and learn the map, being throw in a huge map and need to go to the other side without knowing a thing about the map is horrible.
anyway, I just hope these points are fixed and we can have a decent game, this way the dev can get more money and make even more good games, while it is rash it is necessary to provide good feedback too, and seeing a lot of the review and post here I'm not the only one that found these points I made hard and strange.
Again this game has a good story and good images, but I wouldn't play it again with the way the map is right now, I need to trust the map, the same way the door I can't go in a prompt must be shown, and people I already talked the same, and fix the problem of needing to look at a certain way and at a certain distance to talk with someone, the way I put the spell there was mostly that if this kept happening a bathroom not being where it needs to be or because of magic we need to at least know where to look, every game you said would tell us where to look, I want this game to work while I'm rash I'm realist, look at the review and how many people are saying the same thing, I don't care to be hated if this game work out it will be one more for us but it need to work out first.
A better map is needed resident evil 1 has a decent map, silent hill has an even better map, they are all games in the '90s or earlier 2000s, for god sake Dark Souls doesn't have a map and no one complains but the way it is made it is easier to navigate, a better way would be to go to the entrance first show five or seven rooms, them the bedrooms, them another place, another... this way we are slowly introduce to the world and learn the map, being throw in a huge map and need to go to the other side without knowing a thing about the map is horrible.
anyway, I just hope these points are fixed and we can have a decent game, this way the dev can get more money and make even more good games, while it is rash it is necessary to provide good feedback too, and seeing a lot of the review and post here I'm not the only one that found these points I made hard and strange.
- Mar 18, 2023
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There are some points here that I didn't entirely understand so you'll have to forgive me for possibly misinterpreting them, but definitely also some decent points that, as you said, that have also been echoed by others. I hope that the touch-up to some of the corridors to give them more individual character is going to make the school a little more navigable at least. The map too might see a final, small change by making it so that it colours the entire floor you are on in a strong colour, which should make navigation around the more tricky parts, like the tower/courtyard/first floor serpent staircase part, a bit easier. Besides these, I am not sure if too many changes to navigation is coming, except the previously mentioned "out of game" stuff for those that really just want a walkthrough
I am also not sure if the gameworld layout is any more complex than Dark Soul's (though I'll take the compliment). It can pretty much just be reduced to 2 buildings, each with 4 floors (if you count the cellar in western building), as well as these buildings' respective courtyards. Every quest should tell you which floor exactly it is on, which should narrow down the space that you have to search drastically. I'll definitely be monitoring things tho, and with the map getting opened even more up in this coming release with more secret corridors etc, I might have to add some extra things to navigation further down the line, but we'll see
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- May 8, 2018
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I'm not going to bother responding to godofgames as his response is just wow
Take this with a grain of salt but for majority of people here in F95,
I don't think "difficult gameplay" is that sought after in terms of what people look for in F95 or any adult game community overall.
I could be wrong though as I'm not a game dev or have a patreon count for comparison.
The gameplay is fine for most part, my complaint isn't the gameplay.
The problem is the navigation, as mentioned by majority of the reviews, comments, posts, so on so forth about it.
If asking for something that's built in the game to actually be functional is "hand holding" then
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- Mar 18, 2023
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I mentioned in the post above that the navigation isn't ENTIRELY where I want it to be yet, and that the map might see another small update + corridors are going to get more individuality so it's easier to remember where you are. I might have been unclear in terms of using "handholding", but I wasn't using it about features or lack of them in terms of this game, but new releases in general. Like look at the new God of War for example and how much it holds your hand. I don't think you can deny that games increasingly have become "intuitive", or handholdy, or straight up just telling you where to go with laser focus. So it's entirely possible that you're right and the feeling of getting lost at Hogwarts isn't really what most people play porn games for, and that I could have doubled my Patreon count without it, but it's just something I personally like and I am not sure how much I want to compromise on it. One thing I do realise is that people who are somewhat familiar with Hogwarts have a pretty big advantage in terms of navigating the game, which might explain the discrepancy in some people's experiences, and like also mentioned, I'll try and remedy it with some top-down maps that are going to be posted here on the forums for the people that really want them, but which will probably not feature in the game itselfI'm not going to bother responding to godofgames as his response is just wow
Take this with a grain of salt but for majority of people here in F95,
I don't think "difficult gameplay" is that sought after in terms of what people look for in F95 or any adult game community overall.
I could be wrong though as I'm not a game dev or have a patreon count for comparison.
The gameplay is fine for most part, my complaint isn't the gameplay.
The problem is the navigation, as mentioned by majority of the reviews, comments, posts, so on so forth about it.
If asking for something that's built in the game to actually be functional is "hand holding" then
Thanks for the words about the game itself, when looking past all the navigation stuff! It's appreciated
- May 8, 2018
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Oh I wasn't commenting about when you mentioned "hand holding",
I meant the other guy, the great godofgames who's livid that porn games aren't more difficult
Not that I understand what a map has anything to do with "game difficulty".
I have no problem with getting lost a bit, that's gameplay. The issue is getting lost again, again and again, simply cause the map throws you off.
The quests are mostly go from point a to point b, which is fine.... until there is 20 points where its simply memorization.
And with the updates, eventually you might even add more, right?
There's no functionality to many of the rooms aside from quests, which makes it simply memorization and nothing else.
You aren't incentivized to remember where a room is at all until it's brought up again from another quest.
So chances are, many won't bother to memorize it -> which leads to the current conundrum here for many players.
So if you forgot where a room is for whatever reason, you would try to reference the map.
But if you reference the map, your movement from room to room is just janky due to how big the map is and how weird the map movement is.
Everything becomes a slog and you'll find yourself constantly checking the map instead of purely traveling or enjoying the sights of the game.
The effort required to do a simple point a to point b is multiplied many times, repeat that constantly and many will just get frustrated.
It's taking away a lot from the gameplay.
Long story short for the average player -> when you're better off memorizing your movements instead of referencing the map.
It says a lot about the map..
I personally like the witty dialogue, AI art and the whole concept of trying something new.
My only qualms is a map that does jack all, calling it a map is all but in name.
I would have no problems if it imitated a real world map or even outright used the hogwarts map, cause those are ACTUAL maps.. they do what MAPS do.